astrology

...as above, so below...

"It should not be considered unbelievable that one can
retrieve useful knowledge and sacred relics from astrological folly and
godlessness. From this filthy mud one can glean even an occasional escargot,
oysters or an eel for one's nutrition; in this enormous heap of
worm-castings there are silk-worms to be found; and, finally, out of this
foul-smelling dung-heap a diligent hen can scratch up an occasional
grain-seed -- indeed, even a pearl or a gold nugget." --Johannes
Kepler

Astrology, in its traditional form, is a type of divination based on the
theory that the positions and movements of celestial bodies (stars, planets
[except the one you are born on or those in other solar systems], Sun, and
Moon) at the time of birth profoundly influence a person's life.
Some forms of astrology claim that terrestrial events such as natural
disasters are predicted by various celestial arrangements or events. Given
the innumerable relationships of celestial items, it would be surprising if
one could not find some correlation between earthly events like
tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, fires,
etc., and an arrangement of planets in relation to the Sun or Moon.
Correlation does not prove causality, but it is good enough for most
astrologers. (For a classic example of this kind of reasoning, see
Valerie Livina's blog. She has
sent me several e-mails about things like a full solar eclipse viewable from
China in July 2009 and stories about earthquakes in Japan the following
month. "Do you still think it is just a coincidence?" she asked. Yes, I do.
We call this the post hoc fallacy in my
neighborhood.)

In
its psychological form, astrology is a type of New Age therapy used for
self-understanding and personality analysis (astrotherapy).
In all forms, astrology is a manifestation of
magical thinking.

Ivan Kelly, who has written many articles critical of astrology, thinks
that astrology

has no relevance to understanding ourselves
or our place in the cosmos. Modern advocates of astrology cannot account
for the underlying basis of astrological associations with terrestrial
affairs, have no plausible explanation for its claims, and have not
contributed anything of cognitive value to any field of the social
sciences.

Even so, astrology is believed by millions of people and it has survived
for thousands of years. The ancient Chaldeans and Assyrians engaged in
astrological divination some 3,000 years ago. In India, astrology has been
practiced for at least two millennia. Known as
Jyotisa, it and
several variations such as
Nadi astrology
are still widely practiced in India where
reincarnation is a prominent belief. The light from the heavens
supposedly affects each incarnation and these systems of astrology claim to
be able to discern useful information for guiding a person through his or
her current life.

By 450 BCE the Babylonians
had developed the 12-sign zodiac, but it was the Greeks--from the time of
Alexander the Great to their conquest by the Romans--who provided most of
the fundamental elements of modern Western astrology. The spread of astrological
practice was checked by the rise of Christianity, which emphasized divine
intervention and free will. During the Renaissance, astrology regained
popularity, in part due to rekindled interest in science and astronomy.
Christian theologians, however, warred against astrology, and in 1585 Pope Sixtus V condemned it. At the same time, the work of Kepler and others
undermined astrology’s tenets.
Its popularity and longevity are, of course,
irrelevant to the truth of astrology in any of its forms.

Astrology was also
adopted in ancient Persia and throughout the Arab world where it was taken
up by Muslims whose work found its way to Europe during the Renaissance.*

The ancient
Chinese adopted
an elaborate and intricate system of astrology that is intimately connected
with various metaphysical notions such as yin and
yang and wu xing.
Many Westerners are familiar with the cycle of the twelve Zodiac animal
signs in Chinese astrology, e.g., the year of the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit,
dragon, snake, etc.

The most popular form of traditional Western astrology is sun sign
astrology, the kind found in the horoscopes of many daily newspapers. A
horoscope is an astrological forecast. The term is also used to describe a
map of the zodiac at the time of one’s birth. The zodiac is divided into
twelve zones of the sky, each named after the constellation that originally
fell within its zone (Taurus, Leo, etc.). The apparent paths of the Sun, the
Moon, and the major planets all fall within the zodiac. Because of the
precession of the equinoxes, the equinox and solstice points have each moved
westward about 30 degrees in the last 2,000 years. Thus, the zodiacal
constellations named in ancient times no longer correspond to the segments
of the zodiac represented by their signs. In short, had you been born at the
same time on the same day of the year 2,000 years ago, you would have been
born under a different sign.

In fact, there should be 13 signs, not 12.

Precession of the equinox is caused by the fact that the axis of the
Earth's rotation (which causes day and night) and the axis of the Earth's
revolution around the Sun (which marks the passage of each year) are not
parallel. They are 23 1/2 degrees away from lining up; that is, the
Earth's axis of rotation is tilted. This tilt also causes our seasons, a
fact that Ptolemy did understand but that many people do not understand
even today. Ptolemy understood that the rotation axis of the Earth was
slowly precessing, or moving in a circle, with an angular radius of 23 1/2
degrees with a period of around 26,000 years. He deduced this from
comparisons of data taken by the ancient Sumerians 2,000 years before his
time. He did not understand what was pushing the precession, but he did
understand the motion. We now realize that the Sun is rotating with a
period of around 30 days and that this causes the Sun to bulge at the
equator, which causes a torque to be exerted on the top like motion of the
Earth's day and night cycle. There is also a small 18.6-year variation
caused by the Moon's orbit around the Earth, and the Moon also has a small
effect on precession; however, the Sun's equatorial bulge is the main
cause of the precession of the equinox, which is why your sign listed in
the newspaper, by Sidney Omar for instance, in most cases is removed by
one sign from the modern, actual position of the Sun at your birth.

The modern signs as listed here are further complicated when their
boundaries are those of the current constellations. A neater way of
dividing the signs would be to divide the ecliptic into 30-degree slices,
as Ptolemy did, but to keep the slices centered on the star patterns. This
would make the time interval for the signs more nearly 30 days each and
eliminate the [13th] sign of
Ophiuchus
[off ee oo' kus], but
your modern sign would still differ by one sign from the tradition
designations.*

tropical and
sidereal astrology

Traditional Western astrology may be divided into tropical and sidereal.
(Astrologers in non-Western traditions use different systems.) The tropical,
or solar, year is measured relative to the Sun and is the time between
successive vernal equinoxes (365 days, 5 hr, 48 min, 46 sec of mean solar
time). The sidereal year is the time required for the Earth to complete an
orbit of the Sun relative to the stars (365 days, 6 hr, 9 min, 9.5 sec of
mean solar time). The sidereal year is longer than the tropical year because
of the precession of the equinoxes, i.e., the slow westward shift of the
equinoctial points along the plane of the ecliptic at a rate of 50.27
seconds of arc per year, resulting from precession of the Earth’s axis of
rotation.

Sidereal astrology uses the actual constellation in
which the Sun is located at the moment of birth as its basis; tropical
astrology uses a 30-degree sector of the zodiac as its basis. Sidereal astrology is used by a minority of
astrologers and bases its readings on the constellations near the Sun at the
time of birth.

Tropical astrology is the most popular form and it
assigns its readings based on the time of the year, while generally ignoring
the positions of the Sun and constellations relative to each other. It is
based on the work of Ptolemy.

Ptolemy had available the resources of the vast library at Alexandria ...
and produced two major text books which were to become the mainstay of
astronomical and astrological thinking for the next 1500 years. The
astrological text was known as the
Tetrabiblos
(also known as the Quadrapartitium, or Four Books), which summarized all the
astrological work produced in the past by Mesopotamians and Greeks.... Among
other things it helped establish the Tropical zodiac as the zodiac of the
west on the basis of Ptolemy’s argument that the zodiac should be tied to
the seasons rather than to the constellations.*
[note: For easier reading of this source, if you're using Firefox or
Explorer, either highlight the text to read it or select no style under View>(Page) Style.]

According to some astrologers, the data support the hypothesis that there
is a causal connection between heavenly bodies and human events. Appeals are
made to significant correlations between astrological signs and such things
as athleticism. However, a statistically significant correlation
between x and y is not a sufficient condition for reasonable belief in a
causal connection, much less for the belief that x causes y. Correlation
does not prove causality; nevertheless, correlations are extremely attractive to
defenders of astrology. For example: “Among 3,458 soldiers, Jupiter is to be
found 703 times, either rising or culminating when they were born. Chance
predicts this should be 572. The odds here: one million to one” (Gauquelin
1975). Let’s assume that the statistical data show significant correlations
between various planets rising, falling, and culminating, and various
character traits. It would be more surprising if of all the billions and
billions of celestial motions conceivable, there weren’t a great many that
could be significantly correlated with dozens of events or individual
personality traits.

Defenders of astrology are fond of noting that ‘the length of a woman’s
menstrual cycle corresponds to the phases of the Moon’ and ‘the
gravitational fields of the Sun and Moon are strong enough to cause the
rising and falling of tides on Earth.’ If the Moon can affect the tides,
then surely the Moon can affect a person. But what is the analog to the
tides in a person? We are reminded that humans begin life in an amniotic sea
and the human body is 70 percent water. If oysters open and close their
shells in accordance with the tides, which flow in accordance with the
electromagnetic and gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon, and humans are
full of water, then isn’t it obvious that the Moon must influence humans as
well? It may be obvious to some, but the evidence for these
lunar effects is lacking.

Astrologers emphasize the importance of the positions of the
Sun, Moon,
planets, etc., at the time of birth. However, the birthing process
isn’t instantaneous. There is no single moment that a person is born.
The fact that some official somewhere writes down a time of birth is
irrelevant. Do they pick the moment the water breaks? The moment the first
dilation occurs? When the first hair or toenail peeks through? When the last
toenail or hair passes the last millimeter of the vagina? When the umbilical
cord is cut? When the first breath is taken? Or does birth occur at the
moment a physician or nurse looks at a clock to note the time of birth?

Why are the initial conditions more important than all subsequent
conditions for one’s personality and traits? Why is the moment of birth
chosen as the significant moment rather than the moment of conception?
Why aren’t other initial conditions such as one’s mother’s health, the
delivery place conditions, forceps, bright lights, dim room, back seat of a
car, etc., more important than whether Mars is ascending, descending,
culminating, or fulminating? Why isn’t the planet Earth—the closest large
object to us in our solar system--considered a major influence on who we are
and what we become? Other than the Sun and the Moon and an occasional
passing comet or asteroid, most planetary objects are so distant from us
that any influences they might have on anything on our planet are likely to
be wiped out by the influences of other things here on Earth.

No one would claim that in order to grasp the effect of the
Moon on the
tides or potatoes one must understand initial conditions of the Singularity
before the Big Bang, or the positions of the stars and planets at the time
the potato was harvested. If you want to know what tomorrow’s low tide will
be you do not need to know where the Moon was when the first ocean or river
was formed, or whether the ocean came first and then the Moon, or
vice-versa. Initial conditions are less important than present conditions to
understanding current effects on rivers and vegetables. If this is true for
the tides and plants, why wouldn’t it be true for people?

Finally, astrology
is probably the most widely practiced
superstition and most popular Tooth
Fairy science in the world today. Nevertheless, there are many who defend astrology by pointing out how
accurate professional horoscopes are. Astrology “works,” it is said, but
what does that mean? Basically, to say astrology works means that there are
a lot of satisfied customers. There are a lot of satisfied customers because
thanks to subjective validation, it
is easy to shoehorn
any event to fit a chart. To say astrology "works" does not mean that astrology is accurate in
predicting human behavior or events to a degree significantly greater than
mere chance. There are many satisfied customers who believe that their
horoscope accurately describes them and that their astrologer has given them
good advice. Such evidence does not prove astrology so much as it
demonstrates the
Forer effect and confirmation
bias. Good astrologers give good advice, but that does not validate
astrology. (They also make ambiguous claims like the oracle of Delphi who
told Croesus before he attacked Persia: “If you cross the river, a great
empire will be destroyed.” So armed, Croesus attacked, resulting in the
destruction of his own empire.) There have been several studies that have shown that people will
use selective thinking to make any chart they
are given fit their preconceived notions about themselves and their charts.
Many of the claims made about signs and personalities are vague and would
fit many people under many different signs. Even professional astrologers,
most of whom have nothing but disdain for sun sign astrology, can’t pick out
a correct horoscope reading at better than a chance rate. Yet, astrology
continues to maintain its popularity, despite the fact that there is
scarcely a shred of scientific evidence in its favor. Even the former First
Lady of the United States,
Nancy Reagan, and her husband, Ronald, consulted an astrologer while he was
the leader of the free world, demonstrating once again that astrologers
have more influence than the stars do.

Don't be surprised
if we next hear from the astrologers demanding their "rightful" place in our
universities. Ivan Kelly, foremost critic of astrology, sent me a copy of a troublesome article by astrologer
Valerie Vaughan. "Debunking the Debunkers: Lessons to Be Learned," appeared in
The Mountain Astrologer (Aug/Sept 1998 issue). Vaughan claims that astrologers
are persecuted by establishment science. That is why astrologers can't get "access to
research funding." And that is why astrologers fail to design "research
protocols and run controlled tests in order to supply evidence for their art." Yet,
in the same article Vaughan also claims that "astrology is not a science in the same
sense as chemistry or physics....At most, it might be considered a social science."

Having firmly established that astrology is a social science, she then notes that
"other social sciences, such as history, are not regularly attacked for their
failure to apply scientific methodology in a laboratory setting." How true.
Apparently, Ms. Vaughan does not understand that scientific methodologies can be and are
regularly applied outside a lab in the social sciences. Some of these methodologies are
based on logical principles such as Mill's
Methods, which most astrologers do not seem to believe apply to their discipline. Some
of these methodologies involve the use of statistical analysis of data. Vaughan
understands the need for statistical analysis, but does not believe the usual scientific
protocols apply to astrology. She says that scientists "insist on statistical
analysis using random samples. But astrology cannot be proved or disproved using random
samples because astrology is based on the premise that conditions are never random."
Vaughn's logic is one I am not familiar with, but it sounds like
non sequitur thinking
to me.

A scientifically minded person might think Vaughan is wrong, considering all the
tests done using random samples of both subjects and astrological readings that have shown
that astrology has no significant predictive value. But Vaughan has something else in
mind. Those studies made the assumption

that any time is just as good as another to perform a test of astrology, but
what if you're testing whether Pisces is less aggressive than Aries, and it so happens
that Mars is rising during the test? Or suppose that preliminary research does reveal some
validity in astrology, but in a later attempt at replicating the results, the Moon is void
of course or Neptune is rising? Of course the results will be inconclusive!

Further complicating matters, she says, is that when scientists (read
"non-astrologers") test astrology they test parts of a person's chart. They
ignore "the wholeness of a chart." Thus they commit the fallacy of
composition (not her term): they assume "the whole equals the sum of its
parts."

Astrology is incredibly complex; there are innumerable variables which must be
considered before an astrologer can confidently make a statement. Practitioners of
astrology know that no one factor, such as the Moon in Aquarius, can 'mean' anything in an
absolute sense. That Aquarian Moon could be out-of-bounds, in a different house, opposed
Saturn, or affected by any number of other conditions that modify its significance.

Vaughan has no awareness that it is this very complexity which marks astrology as a
pseudoscience. Nothing could ever disprove it. Astrology can explain everything that
happens, even contradictory events. There is always some ready
ad
hoc hypothesis to explain away any apparent refuting data.

However, what is disturbing about Vaughan's article is not her profound
misunderstanding of science and scientific methodologies, but her call to astrologers to
take to the road like the creationists did a few years ago
and go on the attack. She is outraged that there are now textbooks in our schools that
"contain entire units or learning activities aggressively aimed at teaching students
to distinguish between science and 'pseudoscience.'" Worst of all, astrology is often
used as the prototypical pseudoscience. This must be changed, she says. The debunkers of
astrology are "intellectual control junkies who cannot bear the thought of a
phenomenon they can't explain." The reason astrology is so badly treated is
that
mainstream academia is afraid of "losing control, power, and status. Because of their
need for intellectual and financial control, they keep expanding their territory, applying
the scientific approach to areas that are just plain none of their business."

According to Vaughan, "scientist debunkers [of astrology] have entered the realm
of public school education, but what else would you expect with Pluto currently in
Sagittarius?" (What was that about nothing can mean anything in an absolute sense?)
That is not all. Vaughan invites us to go with her down the slippery slope to envision
science "infiltrating" the humanities, religion, philosophy, ethics--where
"even poetry and drama are at risk."

Vaughan's article is primarily a call to action. She urges astrologers not to sit back
and be persecuted by Science. She advises that astrologers try to get astrology into the
public school curriculum under the guise of "multicultural frameworks."

Since every culture in the world has developed a form of astrology, it is
inherently diverse....A possible tactic is to approach the school authorities about
admitting Western Astrology as a valid cultural tradition, and see what happens.

Another approach, she says, is to try to take advantage of "a new educational
craze which emphasizes student participation."

The idea here is that, if students show an interest in a particular question
(no matter how unrelated it is to the established curriculum), teachers are supposed to
follow the direction of inquiry and incorporate it into the lesson. In other words, if
students in an astronomy class show an interest in astrology, the new standards stipulate
that the teacher shouldn't say that this is a topic students are not supposed to be
learning. It will be interesting to see how this kind of situation is handled, because it
is in direct confrontation with the standards that allow science teachers to debunk
astrology under the guise of instruction in science history, 'critical thinking,' and
scientific method.

Knowledgeable readers
might shrug and laugh at Vaughan's notions and suppose that astrologers aren't going to get that
close to any school curriculum. Think again. Astrologers have children and can belong to
the P.T.A. Their kids can bring them to school for show-and-tell. Or, they could have
credentials like Vaughan. She has a master's degree in Information Science and is the
director of a science education library, where her duties include staying current with
"guidelines and trends in science teaching, and to review the latest curriculum
materials available." I wish I were kidding, but it gets worse.
Astrologers now have their own college.

Kepler College
was
established in Seattle, Washington, in 1999 and has been granted the power to
issue both bachelor's and master's degrees in astrological studies. Upon
launching their website, the folks at Kepler announced:

Kepler College is the first
institution of its kind. Kepler College serves those who are pursuing
careers in astrology, as well as those who seek to develop or upgrade
their skills and incorporate them into other professional practices. To
enhance these experiences, and to further astrology as an academic
discipline, we consider research and academic interaction with other
colleges and universities to be major priorities....

As a Kepler College student you
will acquire academic credits in a number of areas while you study one
major theme --- astrology. You will earn credits in astronomy as you study
the mathematics of the sky. You will earn credits in history as you
explore astrology’s ancient past. You will earn credits in psychology as
you probe the psyche of a chart and see it reflected in life. Throughout
this process, you will learn about life.

Kepler College has held distance learning symposia
and it is to be expected that it will engage in outreach programs, perhaps
fulfilling Vaughan's dream of a grass roots infiltration of curricula in
public schools.